Individuals may choose a variety of subjects in which to gain their bachelor's, master's, or doctorate degrees. One can choose to be an engineer, a practitioner, or a business major. University life can bring any student into the world of business with the knowledge and sometimes discipline it takes to be successful in the U.S. Education is the lifeblood of our nation. In order for our nation to excel, we need to focus on education and making our children better than ourselves.

We have read about the newly created curricula at various schools in the U.S. that cater to motorsports-everything you need to know about building, maintaining, and driving race cars.

We're missing only one thing. What about the speedway where we race these cars that we can now build faster, stronger, and safer? Who teaches promoters and track operators? There are plenty of people who tell them how to do their jobs, but how do these people really stack up when it comes to opening the gates and operating an event?

2/7Filling the grandstands is just one of the tasks that a promoter faces on race day. The promoter has already put in a full day before the first paying customer arrives.

It's tougher than one thinks. It's not very glamorous, either. It takes guts. It takes money. It takes a unique personality and character to operate a successful speedway. The keyword is successful. Two-time winner of Racing Promotion Monthly's Auto Racing Promoter of the Year, Hugh Deery, once said, "You are going to be a son of a bitch; you already are. There's two kinds-dumb ones and wealthy ones. Take your choice."

What can make the promoter's job most difficult is that there is not a textbook to tell you right from wrong. There is not a college course study that can give you the basics of operating a short track. Experience is the only education for the short-track promoter, winning by trial and error. Sometimes it seems like more error and lots of lost money. John McKarns of the former ARTGO Racing Series told me, "You can make a $500 mistake once. If you make it all season [22 weeks], that's $11,000. If you make it for ten years, that's $110,000. Learn from your mistakes."

Veteran experience is priceless in this business. Because of the efforts of Racing Promotion Monthly, racetrack promoters from around the world have gathered twice each year to exchange, discuss, teach, and learn new ideas to improve their businesses.

3/7Today's promoter understands that a racetrack's product is entertainment. You can mix up the racing with novelty events such as school bus races, which can open the door to fans who may not know the track exists.

I called upon my "professors" to assist with this article. One e-mail to a dozen colleagues resulted in over 40 responses. Many kept sharing as they thought more about the industry they love and desire to make better, and their ideas prompted the following list of qualities necessary to be a promoter.

1.Love The Sport And The Long Hours Each "professor" responded with the need for long hours. Promoters do not work 9:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. Most are on call at all times. You are always promoting your speedway. No matter where you go, whom you see, or what you are doing, everyone is a potential spectator or participant at your speedway. You are constantly selling.

This also creates a need to love the sport of auto racing and especially short-track auto racing. In order to talk about it, sell it, and deliver the final product in an appealing manner to the fans and drivers, you have to love the sport. You have to be a fan and know what the fan wants to see. You have to sell the sport as much as your facility. I'm speaking of short-track racing-not the stuff you see on television every weekend.

Thunder Road (VT) Speedway promoter Tom Curley once said, "NASCAR Winston Cup can't survive without the little tracks around the country developing talent and fans. But the little tracks can survive without the Cup Series."

You have to be self-motivated and a self-starter. You have to be a planner. You have to think ahead-far ahead. You cannot come in early on race day and expect the masses to be knocking down the gate in a few hours just because you're open for business. You gotta love the weekly grind as much as the weekly show.

4/7Talk about adversity. When a race day dawns with rain, or even worse, a threat of rain, all planning is affected. Every race promoter wants to overcome the obstacles, but some are beyond control.

2. Be A Showman, Above All Racing events are entertainment. The race can be the most engaging part of your show, but making sure both the fans and drivers are entertained is what it's all about. You can have the worst show in the world, but if everyone has a great time, it will not matter.

P.T. Barnum was one of the best promoters that ever lived. His hype and promotion made you eager to go inside the big tent. The lively acts and colorful characters made you smile and laugh. The smells, the sounds, the lights all added to the atmosphere. It's all the same at the racetrack.

Fans want to see cars racing. The possibility of a crash, sparks, or a little bump and grinding gets them to the edge of their seats. The tire smoke and colors from the cars shimmering in the light make the show seem like pageantry in motion.

5/7A track promoter is also an employer. He relies on others to do a job, like track crews and concession workers. One person cannot run the whole show, but when someone needs to take the blame, it's always the promoter.

Roger Slack from The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway says you have to handicap your fields. "Make the faster cars pass cars to win," he says. "Everyone wants to see the faster guys come from the back." Maybe that's why our sport is called racing and not chasing. The fans want to see action; the drivers want to race.

Throw in some fun stuff. Bus racing, trailer racing, mattress races, dropping things from cranes, racing ministers, and more have created numerous fans and drivers over the years.

You have to know how to have fun, and then you have to show your fans and drivers that they can have fun, too. If you can create a memory, you have created a fan.

3. Be Comfortable With Risk, While Being Averse To Risk The business of short-track racing is tough. Many factors affect the bottom line. Conditions such as weather and other area activities can affect your business and make even the smartest businessperson fear the worst.

The fans and drivers see thousands of people in the grandstand. They read the numbers in the newspaper. They see dollar signs rolling in their eyes and wonder what the owner is doing with all the money that is made.

They fail to see the costs of doing business in the short-track world. Purses take up a large amount of the revenue. Employees, taxes, insurance, product costs, utilities, facility maintenance, advertising, permits and licenses, security, event safety, and more take up a lot of the money coming in the front and back gate. It's a risky business; you can make an event go almost flawlessly and still not take much money to the bank because your car count was low, or your fans went down the road to a special event, or maybe they just stayed home because the local weatherman said there was a 70 percent chance of rain.

A good promoter has to be a risk taker. Every time you open your gates, you are taking a risk that you may lose some money. A good promoter will also cut his or her losses and watch the numbers to ensure that a bad night is not a night that will bankrupt the business.

4. Be Resilient, Not Easily Discouraged The bad night is going to happen. A few years ago, on Friday the 13th, ironically, I lost my cell phone, had a fight in the pits, a woman tripped in the grandstand, we had a bad wreck on the racetrack, a bad storm was looming on the horizon, and then, just after the races were completed, with a sparse crowd, the lights went out due to heavy wind. What else could go wrong? Try everyone in the pit area getting mad at me because I turned the lights out on them before they had their race cars in the hauler or on the trailer. They actually thought I turned off the lights.

The night was a disaster, and the insurance man was waiting for my call on Monday. The drivers in the accident were at each other's throats because it was the other guy's fault. The drivers in the fight were to be issued suspension letters but did not understand why they needed to be suspended for defending themselves. The facility needed some repairs, and we were getting ready to do this all over again in six days.

6/7Oglethorpe Speedway Park features brightly colored signs to help the spectators find the action with ease. Appropriate signs and advertisements can help draw the crowd.

Promoters need to look forward, learn from mistakes, continue to make decisions based on business, and not be influenced by outside parties. Words, acts of God, or just plain bad luck cannot discourage them. These are all difficult feats to accomplish.

5. Be Able To Swear With The Best, But Earn The Trust Of The Church Lady Roger Slack e-mailed a comment made to him by H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler. One of the best promoters in the business once told Roger, "You're doing a great job-everybody in the pit area hates you."

Drivers, crewchiefs, and sometimes even their wives or girlfriends will become irate over things far beyond your control. They will curse you, your mother, and your family, and tell you how you are ruining their opportunities on the racetrack. They will threaten you, take shots at you, spit at you, and throw things at you. You must stand your ground and explain your position, always remembering to treat the person with the respect you would like to see reciprocated.

7/7Make the spectator feel welcome. At Big Daddy's South Boston Speedway in Virginia, you are sent on your way at the end of a race night with this cheerful sign on the canopy. Your business is appreciated at South Boston.

You must keep in mind that all decisions on the racetrack are like calls on the ball field. Someone is always on the bad end of a race call. You will hear every excuse, every gripe, and everything you and your officials have done to wrong them.

Those people and the audience that will gravitate toward the altercation must see how you handle the situation. That is where the respect will come. You have to treat all with respect and you must demand they respect you, as well.

6. Recognize That Drivers Are Customers, Too Your drivers are your customers. You have to listen to them. You don't have to do everything they tell you. They supply information so that you, the promoter, can make the best possible decision based on all the facts you have.

Remember to talk with all your drivers. Don't just cater to the top dogs in each of your divisions. Every driver in the pit area is important. I consider every one of the drivers a friend of mine, and I want them to feel the same way.

Sometimes that makes it difficult when there is an argument. Furthermore, it can make the decision to disqualify, suspend, black flag, or penalize tougher. That's why it is very important to remain consistent.

If you are a true businessperson, you'll understand very quickly that you will gain nothing by trying to influence the outcome of the sport or showing any sort of favoritism.

7. Be Able To Micromanage While Watching The Big Picture John Ostdiek was the first person I worked for in this crazy business. He pointed out that the short-track racing business is similar to any major corporation. The only difference, in most cases, is that the short-track promoter is a single-person or family owner with everything tied up in the business.

Just like a major corporation, the speedway operation touches on all aspects of business from each operational facet (car rules, race procedures, track preparation, facility maintenance, food preparation, advertising, promotion, banking, insurance, customer relations and satisfaction, and so on). There is also the job of finding 40 to 75 "qualified" employees to work, supervise, and pay every week. You also have to be able to let them do their jobs and trust they are on the same page as the rest of your team. Any mistake can cost you and the business money. Remember that we can't continue to make those same mistakes.

You also have "partners" you have to deal with each week. The sales tax people are the first to come calling. There are local, county, and state licensing authorities to deal with for food, beer, cigarettes, fuel, fireworks, and permits in order to do business, as well as building or physical improvements and annual inspections.

You, as the small-business owner, must keep a tight finger on the entire operation while keeping an eye on the operation as a whole. The team needs to be a well-oiled machine. Sometimes that means gaining outside help or advice.

In Conclusion Here are some additional notes that were passed along to me: Be willing to get your hands dirty, but clean up good; know that Port-O-Johns stink, and cleaning them stinks more; be a leader, but also be a doer; be a tough, independent thinker with thick skin; be comfortable in the business world; use common sense to save cents. My insurance man advised to have good insurance, while my attorney friend recommended having a reliable source for legal advice, adding that it usually costs a minimum of $175 per hour and to expect his invoice before the end of the month.

After taking notes from some of the best short-track promoters in the industry, I can add one more: You gotta be nuts!

And when the night goes well . . . the racing is fast, clean, and provides a good show, the fans are smiling and having a great time with their families and friends, the place has a certain energy-you cannot experience a better feeling in the world. It's why you love doing what you do. It makes the tough job worth it. It makes you want to do it again next week, do it better.